


La Doleur Exquise (On Hiatus)

by ghostpeaches



Category: Death Note
Genre: Angst, F/F, I'm sinning, It's discussed but never really acted upon, L has depression, L is pretty much as androgynous as always, Lesbians, Light is a bit suicidal, Light is a misandrist, Literally those six are genderbent and everyone else is the same, Murder Girlfriends, Romance, help me, lots of lesbians, so many lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-18 03:49:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5897035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostpeaches/pseuds/ghostpeaches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because really, who else could Light ever be with? Sure, L was a detective, the very detective assigned to put her behind bars, but Light didn't think she could ever stand loving anyone else in the world. Too bad the bitch had to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Trouvaille

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Champagne Petals](https://archiveofourown.org/works/305483) by [Edmondia_Dantes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edmondia_Dantes/pseuds/Edmondia_Dantes). 



> Guess who's baaaaack!
> 
> Okay so I'm not bringing you any more Yullen for a while, sorry. I kind of fell out of the DGM fandom but I'm getting back into it soon with their new anime. *gross sobs*  
> Anyways. I have wanted to create a lesbian LawLight fanfiction for a while because they are my favorite sin. I plan to create two endings to this, the angsty as fuck canon-compliant ending (which will include lesbian Mello and Matt and fem! Near), and a happier fluffy ending, where L doesn't die and she and Light just lesbian all over the place because why not.
> 
> Ah right, a couple things to get out of the way. This will switch back and forth between a couple of points of view, mostly Light and L, but there will be a fair amount of Mello, Matt, Near and a little Misa. (who, by the way, is named Misae for this fic). So if there is a change of POV, the person's name in Japanese will be the header of the section. Here are *sigh* all of them.
> 
> 夜神月 - Light's POV  
> エル - L's POV  
> メロ - Mello's POV  
> マット - Matts POV  
> ニア - Near's POV  
> 弥海砂 - Misa/Misae's POV (For the sake of me not killing myself, the name right there is Misa, because I don't think Misae is an actual Japanese name, and if it is, I can't find the fucking kanji for it so I'm just leaving that there. In fact, I think that Misae is a Native American name so fuck it I'm not looking nopenopenope)
> 
> (P.S. Not every chapter will have a French name, this one just worked. Trouvaille ~ something lovely discovered by chance; a windfall. I felt it kind of worked for Light and the Death Note.)  
> 

夜神月

When Light Yagami is seventeen years old, she picks up a small black book and her world is ripped apart at its clumsy seams and stitched back together with a skilled, sovereign hand. She kills two men, and for a moment, questions herself. But she knows, by the surge in her heart every time her fingers glide across its oddly-textured cover, that this is her destiny, her fate, and she revels in it.

She kills thirty-eight more before the end of the day and falls into a dreamless sleep, the most restful she’s had in years.  
She feels powerful, and it shows. Sayu even asks her, with a small, innocent smile, if she’s gotten herself a boyfriend. She laughs and says ‘no, she hasn’t the time for one’, and Sayu only tilts her head and wonders.  
She lets them wonder. What are their wonderings going to do, convict her? She’s far too careful for that.

A skeleton in leather and chains shows up days later, when she’s already killed over a hundred people without batting an eye. She isn’t scared in the slightest. In fact, she smiles and shakes his hand, civil and pretty and charming.  
“Nice to meet you, Ryuk.”  
“So you’re the one who’s been making the human world so interesting.” He cackles, taking her smaller tan hand in his bony slate one and giving it a single shake. “You’re different than I expected.” She grins.  
“I’ve heard that before.” She writes a few more names in the book.  


As she twists a strand of hair between her fingers like a silly young girl, she watches the havoc she’s wreaking being broadcast on television and laughs and laughs and laughs.

エル

L Lawliet has never liked people. She is a detective, of course, so the wellbeing of others should be one of her priorities, but she doesn’t solve crime for them. She solves crime for the pure, unadulterated justice in it. There is something inside her that soars when a criminal is put away, and she lives for those moments, because usually she feels useless, even though she knows the world doesn’t regard her that way. But it is a thing she cannot help, and so she pursues cases like a madwoman to melt the aching in her heart. Every case is a wonderful stretch for her brain, forcing her to think and think until she cannot think anymore. This is how her days pass, in lapses of silence and self-doubt and then fervent, frantic writing and long bouts of thinking and researching and going everywhere and nowhere. Up until recently, she had had nothing to focus her time on and had slid with a loathsome ease back into a depressed, workless state. She had been ready to give up for lost, ready to just fall even further off the map than she already was, until Watari had shown up with a new case, and her soul had been set on fire.

This case, the Kira case, is…different. New. Fresh. It tastes like electricity on her tongue, and she likes it. The deaths are a terrible consequence, really, because other than that, this case is like a game, and she has never felt more alive.

Watari is lovely, because he is never disgusted by her fascination with cases, not like some are. Although she does not like humans, she loves their brains, and the psychology of why a human commits heinous crimes is enamoring to her. She can look at the bloodiest crime scene without so much as a grimace, and other people seem to think that that was disturbing. That alone was a large percent of reasoning behind her dislike of them.

Dislike of other humans notwithstanding, she is a detective, and detectives have to work with people. It is this part of the job that she so hates.  


“ICPO.” She says into the microphone, not even trying to mask the boredom in her tone because she knows the voice filterer would do just that. “I am L.”

Why did she have to do this? She could have gone directly to the Japanese police, but Watari had said that this was a smarter and more efficient method. As much as it annoyed her, perhaps he was right. It’s best, she thinks, to have the support of as many organizations as I can get. And besides that fact, she’s not even sure if Kira is in Japan. It’s a hunch, mostly. A factually sound hunch, but a hunch nonetheless.  


After listening to them bicker for what seems like hours, she decides she can’t deal with this shit. Not without cake. If Watari were here, she’d have him grab a slice from the fridge, but he isn’t, and she’s supposed to be invested in this conversation. She bites her lip.  


“I’d like the cooperation of the Japanese police specifically.” She says finally, interrupting a small argument. “I believe that Kira is in Japan and that, even if they are not Japanese, they may be hiding in Japan.” She explains why she thinks this calmly and coolly, rolling a sugar cube between her fingers. At least she has these, even if the cake in the fridge is far from her reach.  
A man interrupts her, and she’s quite offended, but she hears him out regardless.

“L, why do you keep referring to Kira as a ‘they’ if you’re so sure Kira is an individual?” She seethes quietly, because what a stupid question to interrupt her with, but she answers it because that’s what normal people do, not screaming at the inquisitor like a child.  
“I use ‘they’ as a genderless pronoun because I do not yet know what gender Kira is, and though I have my suspicions, I would prefer to keep my mind open.” She nibbles at the sugar cube absentmindedly and it crumbles over her fingers.

“And what gender do you suspect?”  
“I mainly suspect that Kira is female, but once again that is mearly speculation and should not be taken to heart. As for the Japanese police… do I have your cooperation?”  


“Yes.” Came a voice, a new one that was not part of the calamity of earlier. “I’m Chief Soichiro Yagami of the NPA, and I agree that working with you can end this reign of terror that Kira thinks he- they have.” The correction on the pronoun makes her start with slight surprise, but a small smile curls over her lips. She likes this one.  


"Thank you very much, Yagami-san.” The honorific comes as an afterthought, because he’s Japanese and she knows that it is respectful. She finds that she’s missed using honorifics. It’s been a while since she’s worked in Japan. “I look forward to working with you and your investigators.”  


“The same to you… L.”


	2. Moiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moiety (n.)- One of two equal parts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is such a short chapter.

夜神月

The broadcast comes suddenly, but Light is unsurprised.  
“So you finally decided to contact me, hmm L?” She hums happily. L, or Lind L. Tailor, she supposes, is less interesting than she’d hoped. She listens with a bored half-smile to what he has to say, and it’s not until the word ‘evil’ that her eyes flash deadly and she throws her chair aside.  


“No. I’m not evil. I am justice! I will be the god of a new, pure world!” She pulls out a pencil with newly lacquered nails and smiles in a feral manner, penning the name down in wide, awkwardly large letters. It looks so ugly, but she doesn’t care, and she watches with a bright, mad look in her eyes as Lind L. Tailor seizes for a moment before collapsing.

_Bye bye. ___She thinks morbidly, giggling.  
The screen flashes white.  
No.  
There, on the screen, sits one giant, black, old English ‘L’.  
She seethes.  


“You fucking-!” she hisses, and Ryuk says nothing, just cackles quietly and munches on an apple. “No!”  
But L is talking, so she listens with teeth bared behind her soft pink lips, clenched so hard that they squeak against each other.

“But I assure you,” says the garbled voice softly, surely. “L is real. And I will capture you. I know I said this was a worldwide broadcast, but I lied. This was actually only aired in the Kanto region of Japan, and I planned to air it region by region around the world until we found you, but it seems you’ve made my job easy.” Light wants to scream, but instead she buries her face in a pillow and growls every foul word she knows. There are a lot of them. L keeps talking.

“But before that, I issue a challenge. Kill me. Right here and now, Kira. Go on, kill me if you can!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Light says in a pitched whisper, eyes wild and unhinged. “What the hell is _wrong ___with you, L?” She turns off the television with a vicious stab of her index finger and flops face down onto the bed, more furious than she’s ever been in her life, but it only takes a few moments for her to begin laughing. When she smiles up at Ryuk, it’s a mad smile, and if she looked in the mirror she’d be reminded of some she’s killed, but she doesn’t. Instead she rolls over and grins at the ceiling. “This is going to be fun, isn’t it Ryuk?”

I’m certainly not bored anymore.” He remarks, crunching down on an apple. This time her smile is soft and sincere, with just the right amount of madness in it.  
“Me neither.”  


夜神月

Whether it’s because of society warning her about the danger of strange men or because of her own paranoia, Light doesn’t like being followed, and if Ryuk is telling the truth, a strange man is doing just that.  
She fumes quietly and makes sure to pull her curtains tightly before she changes, just in case he’s still there.

エル

L does not trust these men. She trusts the few she knows, including Yagami-san, who continues to earn her respect with his resilience and intelligence and an idiot named Matsuda who continually gives input that makes her fear for humanity, but is so kind and blithely ignorant that it's almost impossible not to trust him.  
But there are some that whisper when they think she cannot hear them. She can, and she doesn’t like what she hears. They don’t trust her, which is reasonable enough given the circumstances, but they also don’t trust Yagami, which is utterly unreasonable. Altogether, they are not bad people. Not like Kira. But they are shifty, and in her mind, shifty people are a half-step above criminals at best. Given that, and the police leak, it’s really no wonder she’s so suspicious.  


The feeling is mutual, from what she hears.

夜神月

Through a miracle or an act of god or simply a mix of clever planning and wonderful luck, Light manages to learn her stalker’s name, and she twists him like a marionette, makes him kill the other agents and then watches him die with a sweet smile. She waves goodbye pleasantly as the train door slides shut and revels in the terror written all over his dying expression.  
_How does it feel to know you’ve been beaten, Raye Penber? ___She thinks happily as the train speeds away.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think I made Light a little more psycho than normal in this scene idk. *shrugs*


	3. Skyndisókn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skyndisókn (Icelandic) - Counterattack

エル

The taunting message is finished, and L is pissed. Kira has gone far enough, she thinks as she clicks the file away. The note burns behind her eyelids, and her teeth screech against the tines of the fork as she viciously bites off a forkful of cake.

「エル　知っているか、　死神は　リンゴ　しか　たべない。」  
_“L do you know? Gods of death eat only apples.” ___

“Damn you, Kira.” She hisses, rubbing at her eyes with her knuckles.

エル

It’s New Year’s Eve, and L is celebrating with red velvet cake. She’s in a new hotel room, waiting for the few members of the Japanese police who decided to stay on the case. Watari is out getting the new technology she ordered, and she’s alone. How quaint. How depressing. It hasn’t yet started snowing, but there are heavy nimbostratus clouds looming in the sky and her breath huffs heavy and foggy on the windowpane. She reaches her fingers up to the window and traces them through her breath fog like a foolish child marveling at the small wonders of the universe. She, though, is not a child. She is an adult, and all the small wonders of the universe have already bloomed and wilted before her tired eyes. There are few things she has yet to experience, and the simple fact of that makes her feel shabby and time-worn.  


Her cake is gone, and she stares at the smeared red and white remains on the plate dejectedly. She licks a smudge of white frosting off the tip of her thumb before dragging herself to her feet and walking over to her chair. The group of police would be here soon, and she had some work to do before they arrived.

エル

“I’m L.” She says, standing in the middle of the room with more than a touch of awkwardness. She’s never liked introductions, and these men are regarding her with such surprise that it’s almost comical. It’s obvious that they had never suspected the great detective L of being a woman. Even honest and trustworthy men like the ones in front of her have at least a drop or two of sexism in them. It’s not really their fault, it’s something that’s been hammered into their brains since they were children- they are the superior gender, no matter what. Gender is a thing that has never really mattered to her anyway, and her intelligence certainly hasn’t been affected by it. Perhaps, though, that is why she has so adamantly hid her face up until now. It wasn’t like there had been anything like Kira before; it wasn’t like her face itself would put her in danger of being killed until Kira came on the scene. However, in just about any country she worked in, gender was a fairly big thing. As such, perhaps it had been her first instinct to hide herself away, so that respect came without bias.  


She mentally slapped herself. They were talking and she’d missed most of it with her internal worrying. Luckily, she realizes they were only introducing themselves with their full names. What idiots! What if she was Kira? This is what Watari would, in her youth, call a teachable moment.  


She raises her hand in the universal symbol for a gun and feigns shooting them.  


“What the hell was that?” asks the angry one with the curly mass of hair.  


“If I were Kira, you’d be dead, Yagami-san.” Her mouth twitches up in a half-smile. “Kira can only kill with a name and a face. I would avoid throwing your name out like that. We are the few people left who are unafraid of Kira, willing to risk everything to defeat them. For now… let’s value our lives.” Yagami-san and the others follow her into the second room of the hotel. “I would ask you to turn off your cellphones and leave them here.”  


“You think we’re going to leak information or something?” Once again, it’s the one with the curly hair. My, he has a temper.  


“It’s not that.” She says pointedly, settling into her chair. She presses her thumb to her bottom lip and nibbles at it absentmindedly. “I just hate when people’s cellphones go off while I’m talking to them. It’s so rude.” They all regard her once again with surprise before settling down uncomfortably on the couches around the coffee table. “Now then.” 

Their faces are expectant, hopeful, and a touch worried. “I request that from now on you refrain from calling me L, and instead use the name Ryuuzaki, just for safety’s sake.” They nod. “Now that that’s out of the way, shall I tell you my thoughts on this case?”  


There is a collective, if a bit hesitant, nod.

夜神月

This woman standing in front of Light is beautiful, but her words are worrisome and threatening, and Light can feel terror digging razor sharp between her shoulder blades. She speaks sweet, soft lies to the woman, who easily comes apart in Light’s hands and reveals herself to be the fiancée of Light’s stalker.  


 _What terrible taste in men, ___Light thinks fiercely, internally congratulation herself on having better taste than that. Granted, her taste is a bit more on the feminine side, but that’s hardly the point.  


As they walk, Light talks of her father, of the investigation team, of the new snow falling lightly on them. The woman, who tells Light her name is Shoko Maki, says very little. Light writes her name in the Death Note, and nothing happens. That casually thrown out name must be an alias, Light thinks with a sharp twist of her lips. She has to learn the woman’s real name. It will be hard, now that she’s given Light a fake, but Light is smart, and a housewife in the making, no matter how careful, is never going to get the better of her.  


夜神月

_Naomi Misora, ___she thinks as the woman walks away a while later, towards her grave. _I’m sorry it had to end this way. We could’ve been friends, you know. But if I am going to be goddess of the new world, I can’t have the task force knowing all my dirty secrets, now can I? Two can keep a secret, but only if one of them is dead. ___  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> L is very hard for me to write, so if you have feedback on that in particular, I'd really appreciate it. :)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Also, Light is gay as fuck.


	4. Opthalmophobia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Opthalmophobia (n.) - The fear of being stared at or watched

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day, you beautiful dorks!!

エル

L knows they don’t entirely trust her yet, but then again it isn’t exactly easy to, and she knows that.  


She’s a bit stunned and a lot angry over the news of Naomi Misora’s disappearance, because Naomi had been a woman who had earned her utmost respect and she hasn’t a single doubt that Kira is behind this. She seethes quietly and looks over the tapes of Raye Penber again.  


“Yagami-san.” She says inquisitively, “Could you come over here, please?”  


“Yes, Ryuuzaki?”  


“I would like to start investigating a bit more heavily on people whom Raye Penber was following before his death. Does that sound like a good idea to you?”  


“Yes, of course. Who was he investigating?”  


“Raye Penber had been investigating…” L shuffled through the papers and made a grim face when she found them. “The families of Deputy Director Kitamura and Chief Yagami.” Yagami-san’s expression pinches, as though he had known this was coming, but the rest of the task force erupts in protest.  


“What?” yells Aizawa (who she has childishly nicknamed _ikaru-san ___). “Why are the Chief and his family under suspicion?”  


“As you know, Aizawa-san, there has been a leak of police information, and it is necessary to cover all bases when pursuing Kira.” L frowns and nibbles on a chocolate-dipped wafer. “It’s reasonable to investigate the two most influential men in the NPA.”  


“Of course, L is right.” Yagami-san says quietly. “What would you have us do?”  


“With your permission,” L says, turning back to her computer, “I would like to put surveillance cameras in both households.”  
Aizawa practically roars in reaction.  


“What the hell, Ryuuzaki? If this gets out it would be a human rights issue! We could lose our jobs!” She resists the urge to roll her eyes.  


“I would only do so if Yagami-san agreed to it. And, Aizawa-san, you joined this force because you were prepared to lose your lives, and yet now you say you are unprepared to lose your jobs? That seems a bit contradictory to me.”  


“Ryuuzaki… I support your decision to put up cameras. I believe it to be in the best interest of the investigation.”  


“Chief, why?” Matsuda exclaims before L can get in a word. “You have a wife and two daughters! What about them?”  


“The fact Ryuuzaki suspects my family makes me very angry, but if that’s the case then we must investigate. If the only way to prove my family’s innocence is by letting Ryuuzaki install cameras, then so be it.”  


“For the privacy of Yagami-san’s family, only he and I will keep watch.”  


“Still, that’s so…”  


“Aizawa-san.” She deadpans. “It is not like I have never seen a female body before. In fact the only one of us here that I suspect has never seen one is Matsuda-san.” It takes a moment for the comment to sink in, and L sips her tea in silence as Matsuda pouts.  


夜神月

Life goes on the same for a while until the day Light walks up to her bedroom door to realize that someone has entered it. Her heart hammers in her chest because she _knows ___, oh _fuck ___does she know. Cameras, wire taps, they have to be there. _They have to be. ___  


She explains this with barely contained franticness to Ryuk, who of course doesn’t see the razor edge dangers in the fact that someone, most likely L, is monitoring her, Kira. No, he’s far too concerned with whether or not he’ll be able to eat apples anymore. How he’s survived as a Shinigami up to this point is beyond her. She makes a small trip to the bookstore, and Ryuk continues talking to her like she can respond (which of course she can't, what an idiot). L is not going to outsmart her. She is Kira, but above that, she is Light Yagami, top student in Japan. In the face of every boy at her school, she, a girl, rose to the peak. Whoever L thinks he is, she's going to knock him down from the stupid pedestal the world has placed him up on, and she hopes it fucking hurts when she does.  


Once at home, she goes about her life like she normally would, doing her homework and occasionally, sweetly, helping Sayu with hers.  


"So, do you get it now?" Sayu bites her lip but nods.  


"Sorry, ane. I know I ask for help a lot but math is just so hard."  


"You'll get it one day, Sayu-chan." She promises, smoothing out Sayu's soft brown hair with a deceivingly gentle hand.  


"I sure hope so." Sayu murmurs dramatically, leaning back in her chair. "Why do I even need math? It's not important for the job I want. I just want to be a pop star, I mean, when do they need math?" Light doesn't answer, because she knows that anything she says will come out angry and hostile. Personally, it pisses her off that Sayu wants to be a pop star. Why degrade yourself like that? Why spend the rest of your life judged by your voice and your dancing and your looks? Why wear slutty, shiny, tight clothes for the sake of the public eye? Light just doesn’t understand her younger sister, and never really has. How could the same parents produce children with such wildly different mentalities?  


"Well, Sayu." She says finally, gathering up all of Sayu's papers and hers into different stacks. "You never know what math will be useful for." She opts not to go for the 'you might change your mind' talk, because that one has been used on her so many times that she knows how disdainful it can sound.  


"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Sayu grins as she takes the stack of papers from Light. "So, any boys in your life you haven't told us about?" Light thinks of Ryuk and suppresses a laugh.  


"No, none to report." She replies with a tight-lipped smile. Sayu leaves without asking anymore. A conversation without some sort of gossip or pop culture reference is as boring to her as a conversation lacking intellectualism is to Light.  


As soon as she's gone, Light sighs quietly and rubs her temples with two fingers. Sayu may be lovely and sweet and everything Light is not, but holding a conversation with her is like pulling teeth. All she wants to talk about is pop stars and boys, two things Light surely is not interested in. Who needs boys and pop stars when you have impending divinity to take up your time?  


エル

L rather likes surveying Light Yagami. She is a pretty girl, sure, but beyond that, she is so... intriguing. Her mannerisms, the way she speaks and acts... everything about it is calculated, and L simultaneously hates it and likes it. Light Yagami is incredibly intelligent, and it is not often L gets to witness the existence of a young woman as intelligent as herself. However, L realizes, it is because of this fact that Light Yagami will be more difficult to profile than any suspect that she has ever worked with before. L, despite her glaring lack of social skills, can read most people like an open book. Take Yagami-san for example. He's a fiercely loyal man, most likely driven to such loyalty by a betrayal at some point in his life, probably by a father or father figure. She had asked him about that at one point (in the intrusive, rather rude way she usually does), and he had blinked in surprise and admitted that she was, unfortunately, right. She had apologized for her impudent questioning and had left him alone. But the point stood, she was good at reading people. But Light Yagami was less like her father than she initially seemed, and L found herself unable to get a read on anything about Light's personality, except that she was childish, proud, and had a slight tendency towards misandry. Despite those things, she was also generally benevolent, hard-working, and creative. L could get a read on her qualities, but not her backstory, and definitely not her inner workings. She was like an exceedingly difficult puzzle, and L was eager to solve her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> L is fucking brutal and I love it. Poor Matsu.
> 
> Ikaru - Anger, to get angry (so she it basically calling Aizawa Mr. Anger or Mr. Angry)  
> Ane - Older sister


	5. I'm Afraid That the Spotlight Dried You Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light's gay, and L knew it all along. Soichiro is less enthused.
> 
> Title is from the song "Kill the Lights" by Set it Off (Please listen, it's such a good song and it's one of my favorite songs to listen to when writing LawLight)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is so late augh I've been busy and sick lately I'm very sorry.  
> Updates will be slower from now on

エル

“Ryuuzaki… why would my daughter look at something like that?” L frowned, pressing her thumb into her bottom lip. Onscreen, Light was delicately turning the pages of an erotica book, beautifully rendered women staring up from its glossy pages.  


“Well sir, I would first like to say that I don’t suspect your daughter will be providing you with any grandchildren.” Soichiro colored slightly. “However, even with the blatant admittance of her sexuality and the… sensuality of the book’s contents, it feels rather forced to me, as though she has made it look like she took such care in guarding her room only to hide books like these.” L nibbled at her thumbnail contemplatively.  


“Are you really telling me that you suspect my teenage daughter of being Kira?”  


“Of all the people in your family, she is he most likely to be Kira. She fits every criterion that we have set for our Kira suspects. And besides that fact, I would not have put up cameras in your house if I did not suspect your family, Yagami-san.” Soichiro made a face, but nodded in response.  


L stared at the screen, as Light’s thin fingers slid over the shiny images, around the graceful curve of the girl’s breasts and thighs. She smirked out of Soichiro’s sight. She had thought there was something unusual about Light Yagami, but she had never suspected this. How interesting. Social, popular, straight A, well-put together Light Yagami was a lesbian. What other interesting things would L discover about the girl? She could only wonder, still grinning just beyond Yagami-san’s view.

夜神月

There came a day when Light realized exactly what she had to do to shirk L’s suspicion. And so, she orders the LCD screen in complete secrecy, having it delivered to a friend’s house instead of her own and then sealing it inside the chip bag with a nice little tool and then bringing it home with the rest of the groceries (which she’d bought because she knew how busy her mother could be, and wanted to take a load off her shoulders).  


Dinner was quiet and uneventful, save for Sayu cooing over pop star Hideki Ryuuga and how lovely he was.  


But then…  


“Hm? The ICPO is sending fifteen-hundred investigators to aid in the Kira investigation.” Sayu grinned. “How cool!”  


“The ICPO must be pretty stupid.” Light says haughtily, swallowing a mouthful of rice. “I mean, those twelve FBI agents were investigating in secret and Kira still got them. Why announce the arrival of that many new investigators? They’ll be killed too. That is, if this is even real. In my opinion, it’s a ploy to get Kira to reveal himself.”

エル

“Your daughter it quite intelligent, Yagami-san.”  


“Hm? Oh, yes. Top of her class.”  


“That isn’t what I meant…” L grins, nibbling at her thumb. She curls her toes and stares intently at Light. Light Yagami is interesting. Interesting, interesting, interesting.

夜神月

Light isn’t even sure that she’s thrown off L’s suspicion with her little trick, but it’s the best she has right now. She doesn’t know enough about L to be able to make a ploy tailor-fit to him, so that bit of simple sleight of hand will have to do. She’s been too busy lately, what with her exams right around the corner and trying to write names in the Death Note out of L’s sight. She is still a High School student and, moral responsibility or no, she still has the responsibility of keeping her grades up and upholding a social life. Agh, damn L. What a nosy son of a bitch. He could’ve put up cameras after her exams but no, she had to deal with the added stress of being watched alongside all her other stressors.  


Her entire internal monologue is rendered completely moot the moment she gets home and discovers that the cameras are gone. Every last one. She tosses Ryuk and apple, and he looks so happy her could cry as his sharp teeth breach its delicate skin. She laughs, a light sound that makes her shoulders and breasts shudder gently. Time to study. She thinks. Time to pass judgement. If L could see the look on her face right now, conviction would no doubt be in order.


	6. Zwischenzug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light's a college student and L's a college sneak-in.
> 
> Also, was it mentioned that Light is gay? Because she is. Super duper gay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zwischenzug - (German:"intermediate move") is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move, first interposes another move, posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, then plays the expected move.
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry this chapter took forever to write but it is pretty long, so I hope that makes up for it.

エル

“Ryuuzaki, if I may ask.” L tilted her head back, hair spilling down her back with the motion, and looked questioningly at Mogi. The man didn’t speak much, so she always made sure to listen when he did.  


“Yeah?” She asked, pulling the strawberry lollipop out of her mouth. Mogi shuffled around a couple of papers and eyed her seriously.  


“Why did we take the cameras out of both households if you still aren’t sure who Kira is?” She gave a tentative lick of the lollipop and sighed, tilting her head forward and talking to her computer screen.  


“Well, I feel as though anything we would chance to witness in either house has already happened. If Kira is in one of those families, they are not going to reveal themself so easily. That’s really all I learned from the surveillance. Either none of them are Kira, or Kira is just very good at shirking suspicion. I don’t feel as though a simple surveillance like that will make Kira even waver. We need a more proactive method of determining who is Kira.”  


“And what would that be?” Aizawa asked, untrusting as always.  
“Watari and I are working on one right now.” There was a long pause in which the only sounds were her fingers clicking on the laptop keyboard and her occasionally adjusting the lollipop in her mouth.  


“Are you going to tell us what it is?”  


“No.” Matsuda and Mogi accepted this with silence, Soichiro gave a soft sigh, and Aizawa groaned in annoyance.  


“The method simply doesn’t concern any of you.” She says simply, eyes never moving from her computer screen. “It involves myself, Watari and one of our suspects.”  


“May we at least know which suspect?” Soichiro asked. L shrugged, tilting her head back again.  


“Your daughter, Yagami-san.” She replies without emotion. Soichiro blinks in shock.  


“I… why her specifically?” L frowns, licking at her lollipop pensively.  


“Well, as we’ve discussed, Yagami-san, she is the most likely of all our current suspects. She is incredibly intelligent, a student, and she obviously has a very pronounced sense of justice. Of all the people Raye Penber was looking in on, she seems like the most likely. I hate to say it, but we need to investigate her more closely. Specifically, _I ___need to investigate her. Personally.” Soichiro sighed and rubbed her temples, but nodded.  


“I’m sorry if I seem like I’m attacking you over this, Ryuuzaki.”  


“No, no, it’s understandable. Anyone in their right mind would feel attacked in this situation. It’s your daughter, you raised her, and I’m sure if she was Kira, you would feel as though it were your fault. I should hope, if the situation were to arise, you would not feel the need to anything drastic, such as commit suicide.” The rest of the task force gasped at the morbidness and utter bluntness of her statement, but she shrugged. “I felt as though it needed to be addressed.”  


“Perhaps with more subtlety.” Aizawa replied. It was obvious he was trying to sound calm, but the vein pulsing in his forehead made it clear he was not. L frowned sharply at him.  


“I felt it was subtle enough.”  


“Coming right out and saying it is not subtle.” L nodded.  


“I’ll keep that in mind for next time, Aizawa-san.” She replied with a near hint of mockery in her tone, clicking onto a page of college entrance exam schedules. “Yagami-san?” Soichiro’s head tilted up, prompting her to continue. “Light-kun is entering To-Oh university, correct?”  


“Yes, if she passes her entrance exam. I have no doubt she will, though.” He said proudly. L smiled.  


“I agree.”  


夜神月

Light is more confident about this entrance exam than she’s been about anything in her life, and she’s sure she looks quite pretentious marching in three minutes before the exam is to begin, sensible black high-heels clicking on the concrete and honey-brown hair swinging behind her. Ryuk laughs his dark, raspy laugh and remarks on her confidence, and she only smiles.  


“Good things come to those with confidence.” She says in an undertone, so that only Ryuk can hear her.  


“I don’t think that’s the quote.” She waves her hand in a passé manner.  


“Well, the real quote isn’t a very good one. ‘Good things come to those who wait’?” She scoffs. “What a childish way of thinking.” Ryuk says nothing, and she rounds the corner and turns into her exam room, tossing her hair just slightly as she settles into her assigned seat. She checks the clock. The exam is starting in a minute and a half. She’s early. She grins.  


The proctor sets the test down in front of her and she scans the first page as he drones the same rules she’s heard for years. He issues the command to begin and she does just that, a sharp and slightly mad smile on her beautiful face. She writes her name in kanji on the top line and then moves on to the first question. She’s gotten to about the eighth question when the test proctor walks past her. She freezes up for a moment before she realizes that he is after another student behind her. She turns in mild interest and the student behind her, seated oddly in their chair, looks up. It’s a girl, strange and foreign-looking, but incredibly pretty. Her skin is extraordinarily pale, and though Light has never really let her country’s sexist beauty standards influence her, it looks extremely nice on this girl, smooth and milky and unblemished. Her eyes and the messy tumble of her hair, in contrast, are charcoal black, and the undersides of her eyes are lightly smudged purple-grey with sleeplessness. Somehow, Light finds herself thinking, it all works together very well. The girl is undeniably attractive, in a very odd way. The tips of Light’s ears warm as the girl’s head tilts inquisitively, as though wondering why Light is staring, and Light only smiles politely and turns back around. Has she ever seen that girl before? She feels like she would remember if she had. She turns back to her exam, the girl out of her mind, but not far from it.

夜神月

Light smiles proudly as she shuffles her notecards and peeks at them once, twice. She had expected to be top of her class, and she had hoped (and secretly, arrogantly, expected) for a perfect score on her entrance exam. But being freshman representative for To-Oh? Giving a speech for it? She hadn’t expected that. What she had expected even less was to be giving it alongside someone else. Of course, no one had had the common courtesy to tell her she wasn’t the only student with a perfect score, and so she looked like a fool when they announced it. Figures.  


She steadies herself with a slow breath, and begins walking up on stage. Her co-speaker walks up as well, and Light finds herself stifling a gasp. It’s the girl, the one from the exam, with her perfect skin and her dark, dark eyes, and her forever inquisitive stare. There is something searching in her expression and she blinks owlishly at Light before a slightly mischievous smile graces her lips.  


“Hello,” she glances at Light’s nametag, but something tells Light it’s only for show. “Light Yagami.” There is a slight English twinge to her voice that only a native Japanese speaker would be able to notice. The girl extends her hand (and the fact she’s not Japanese suddenly is very obvious) but Light accepts it anyways, giving it a slight shake before they pull apart and move to their respective microphones. Light gives her speech, never once glancing at her notecards, and finishes with a slight bow.  
The girl’s speech is shorter, and Light doesn’t listen to it, too busy studying the curve of her cheekbones and the way her clothing hangs off her loosely. The girl has almost no breasts, and is what Light would call “flat as a board”, most likely due to how thin she was. 

Light is sure that this is a trap. She’s certain that L has sent this girl as a ruse, a sick sweet snare like the mouth of a flytrap, but she can’t find it in herself to care. For the first time in… god, _years ___, a person has piqued her interest. It isn’t even sexual interest (although Light will admit to some of that as well) so much as intellectual interest. And although she’s never exactly had a type, she enjoys how aesthetically pleasing this girl is, androgynous and with her contrasting skin and hair. Even the sleep-smudges beneath her eyes hint at a story Light would love to hear.  


The girl finishes her speech and they announce their names again. Light is sure she hadn’t heard the name the first time they’d announced it, but she hears it now, and frowns.  


“Light Yagami and Hideki Ryuuga, our freshman representatives, everyone.” That’s an alias. Light _knows ___that’s an alias, and it makes her seethe. She wasn’t even thinking of killing the g… _Ryuuga ___, because even if L did send her, Light deserves some fun, and Ryuuga seems like the exact kind of fun she had been looking for. She grits her teeth in annoyance, and it slowly spreads into a feral-looking smile as Ryuuga sits next to her, in a weird position with her legs all curled up to her chest.  


“Yagami-kun.” Comes Ryuuga’s quiet, low-pitched voice. “You are the daughter of the chief of the NPA, Soichiro Yagami. Incredibly intelligent, highest in all her classes.” Light’s head spun as she listed these things off. Evidently, looking at her nametag was more for show than Light had even begun to suspect. “Light Yagami, I have something I’d like to tell you, and you can’t tell anyone, okay?” Light glanced over at her and gave a slight incline of her head to show she heard. Ryuuga leaned in very close, so that her warm breath very nearly ghosts over Light’s neck. She shivers and Ryuuga smiles eerily.  


“I’m L.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep laughing imagining L leaning her head back over the back of the chair, like she just doesn't give enough of a fuck to actually turn around and talk to them.


End file.
